Highly-compact eyewear can provide great convenience, and may additionally prove useful in critical situations when conventional eyewear has been lost, misplaced, or forgotten. Compact eyeglasses should meet several requirements. In particular, compact eyeglasses should be very small in size, such that the eyeglasses are as small as possible while still providing good optical performance. Compact eyeglasses should also have thin lenses, even when the lenses provide a high level of magnification. Additionally, compact eyeglasses should provide a wearer with a secure, yet comfortable fit, and should be easily adjustable to accommodate variations in facial structure. Also, compact eyeglasses should provide a high level of durability and damage resistance. Compact eyeglasses should further be manufacturable via simple, robust techniques. Finally, compact eyeglasses should be inexpensive. Unfortunately, prior compact eyeglasses fail to adequately meet the aforementioned requirements.
The present invention provides highly-compact eyeglasses that readily meet the aforementioned needs. The present invention comprises a first lens portion and a second lens portion that are coupled via a bridge member or wire. The lens portions may be right- and left-side versions of each other. Each lens portion may include an optical section that provides desired refractive, magnifying, and/or light-focusing characteristics; and a transition section that may serve as an interface between the optical section and the bridge wire, and which may further provide a gripping region that ensures a secure fit against or upon a wearer""s nose. The optical and transition sections may be comprised of a single, contiguous piece of material such as polycarbonate, which may facilitate ease of manufacturability.
The optical section may include a reference surface characterized by a reference curvature; and an adjustment surface characterized by a curvature that is designed or selected relative to the reference curvature to provide the optical section with a desired dioptic power. The transition section may include an upper surface, a lower surface, and an edge. In one embodiment, the distance between the transition section""s lower surface and a peak or top of the optical section""s reference surface is independent or essentially independent (relative to manufacturing process variation, for example) of the lens portion""s optical characteristics.
The transition section""s upper surface may include a lip or rim that can aid in securing a lens portion to a wearer""s nose in a comfortable manner. Additionally, the transition section""s edge may include a corrugated or roughened section or segment, which can further aid in comfortably securing the present invention to a wearer""s nose. The lip and/or the corrugated section may eliminate the need for nose pads found on other types of eyewear, thus enhancing the compactness and durability of the present invention.
The bridge wire may serve as a type of flat spring that couples the first and second lens portions. The bridge wire may exhibit a memory relative to positional displacement. As the bridge wire may be readily spread and/or contracted, the bridge wire facilitates adjustment of the distance between the first and second lens portions, and helps support the eyeglasses upon a wearer""s nose. In one embodiment, the bridge wire comprises a generally m-shaped piece of thin wire having a circular cross section, and which includes a first end segment, a first arm segment, a second end segment, a second arm segment, and an indentation segment.
The present invention may be manufactured using conventional injection molding techniques. In one embodiment, the first and second bridge wire end segments are embedded within the first and second lens portions, respectively. Use of curved or bent bridge wire end segments, in conjunction with adequately controlling the distance between bridge wire end segments and the edges of the lens portions, may ensure that the position of the bridge wire relative to the lens portions is essentially identical from one pair of eyeglasses to another.
The bridge wire""s indentation segment comprises an indented region along the bridge wire""s length. In one embodiment, the indentation segment comprises a generally u-shaped indentation located midway between the first and second end segments. The indentation segment may enhance ease of manufacturability be providing a holding region for securing the bridge wire during a manufacturing process. The indentation segment may additionally enhance the bridge wire""s lateral stability, as well as aid in securing the eyeglasses to a wearer""s nose.